A vision : Bridging Two Worlds
Sustainable Business Associates (sba) is a non-governmental organisation established in 1995 in Switzerland. It is active in the field of sustainable development in emerging countries mainly in the Maghreb, the Middle East and Africa. In close collaboration with the academic and industrial spheres, sba works toward the integration of eco-efficiency and sustainable development on the national, regional and international levels.
To this effect, sba developed a series of innovative tools adapted for professionals in partnership with various competence centre in Switzerland and other countries. Moreover, sba carries out awareness raising actions, organises specialised trainings, develops pilot projects and, encourages integrated management in different environmental domains within the enterprise and the administration. It works with its partners at the micro level through targeted actions, at the meso level in sectorial projects and at the macro level through national strategic programmes.
sba's motto is “Bridging two worlds : linking industry and environment, ecology and economics, the responsibility to manage and corporate responsibility, training and application, and finally linking the industrialised countries of the North to the emerging countries of the South”.
15 years of cooperation
A mission in favour of sustainable development
sba's mission is to encourage and support the integration of environmental and social concerns and issues in strategic development and enterprise and community management in the Maghreb, the Middle East and in Africa. For this reason, sbaworks with industries, government, communities, universities and NGO, among others in order to:
- Promote a sustainable environmental action for economic activities
- Develop environmental capacities in partner countries
- Support decision-making and innovation in favour of an integrated management within the structures
- Create national and international competence networks
- Encourage social responsibility in the enterprise.
Competencies and fields of action
sba's programmes and projects are structured along priority topics as described below.
Training and support for professionals
Training is a requirement to anticipate and accompany the development and evolution of society. sba transfers cutting-edge knowledge in environmental management based on a progressive and participative methodology. To this effect, sba set up online and attendance training programmes, particularly adapted for adult training. With an extensive experience in this field, sba offers its knowledge and know-how to accompany professionals in an adequate learning approach.
Eco-management
Aiming at providing professionals with simple and practical tools to environmental management, sba developed a large series of eco-management guides that can be used for small and medium enterprises in all sectors of economic activities. These are the Good Housekeeping Guide for SME, Ecomapping, Environmental Self-Diagnosis and, the Environmental Performance Indicators. These tools allow enterprises and industries to assess their practices in environmental management, to determine the areas of improvement and to plan the profitable corrective measures on the environmental and economic levels. The eco-management guides produced by sbaare visual, systematic, progressive, and assist in decision-making.
Cleaner Production
In order to better respond to the needs and expectations of its partners, sba expanded its efforts toward cleaner production to contribute to the development of a sustainable mode for industrial production. This process allows the increase of competitiveness of enterprises on the long run while reducing their impact on the environment through the implementation of improvement measures. In the framework of its action with the Environmental Research Centre in Jordan, sba developed a tested methodological approach for cleaner production. With its partners, it combined some of the key concepts in an Excellence Model of Cleaner Production. In parallel, sba, with the help of its partners, introduced new cleaner production tools to the beneficiaries: risk analysis, life cycle analysis, clean development mechanisms and, environmental audit.
Sustainable and responsible tourism
Growth and rapid development of the tourism sector has some repercussions on the environment, the society and the economy. On the environmental level, these repercussions can mean the exhaustion of natural resources and diverse types of pollution. Thus, a sustainable approach of tourism is required to reduce the negative impacts of tourism on the environment and to maximise the advantages for local populations. To this effect, sba developed an approach favouring the integration of environmental issues in the tourism industry including the use of a tool adapted for the needs of professionals as well as targeted accompanying actions in Jordan, Tunisia and, Morocco.
Economic environmental studies and analyses
Economic environmental studies and analyses are conducted to measure the various degradations induced by the activities of the entity under study (enterprise, industrial sector, city or country). Then based on the findings and the developed indicators recommendations are given in order to facilitate decision-making. During these assessments, sba experts determine the monetary value of welfare losses and production due to the deterioration of the environment on various industrial sectors and urban communities. The objective being to determine the priority sectors where political action is highly needed to obtain substantial environmental and social results.
Integrated Waste Management
Managing waste is among the major concerns of various economic activities. Indeed, sustainable, realistic and economically viable solutions that are directly related to the local context must be found. In this perspective, sba developed several initiatives and targeted actions through pilot projects, thematic guides, practical trainings and operational procedures. For example, sba supported a material recovery project in the framework of establishing a waste collection centre in Algeria; additionally sba produced a guide for a responsible management of hazardous waste in Jordan and analysed hotel industry practices with respect to recycling in Tunisia.
Competence Networks for complementarity and synergy
Networks are essential for experience sharing and the reinforcement of professional links. Thus, sba set up regional clusters for the environment to generate sustainable synergies to improve the dissemination of knowledge and know-how. In this respect, sba actively participates through its programmes to the establishment of networks of experts and professionals having complementary skills to develop projects with integrated approaches.
Communication and dissemination
Information sharing fosters action and progress, sba favours the exchange of information and its dissemination through round tables, seminars, symposiums and publications in English, Arabic and French.
Diploma of advanced studies en stratégie environnementale et enjeux économiques
